Local

East Sacramento Man Convicted Of Stalking Neighbors Again

Related Tags:

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A Sacramento man is going to prison – again – for stalking his neighbors.

James O’Rourke has now been sentenced twice for the same crime against the same victims.

James O’Rourke speaks to CBS13 in 2010 after his release from prison for his first stalking conviction. (credit: CBS13)

Many are scratching their heads as to why O’Rourke would return to the scene of his crime and do it all over again.

The 68-year-old east Sacramento man was convicted Friday of stalking his neighbors across the street, the same neighbors he was convicted of stalking and threatening six years ago.

“You know, I’m the victim here and they’re the culprits,” O’Rourke said two years ago, pointing the finger at his neighbors after getting out of prison for the first conviction..

Despite a restraining order, he was moving back into the same house across the street from the neighbors he’d terrorized.

“I’m going to prove I was falsely convicted,” he said.

But instead of proving his innocence, O’rourke’s second conviction has proven he’s a serial stalker. Prosecutors say O’Rourke verbally abused and intimidated his neighbors and took more than 1,200 pictures of them and their guests.

The news was not surprising to Janet Darvas, who says O’Rourke stalked her and other women in east Sacramento more than 30 years ago.

“We called him the creep in the jeep,” she said.

O’Rourke is due back in court on June 29. He could face up to seven years behind bars. He’s being held in the Sacramento County Jail without bail.